'Godot' arrives to bring to €1.3m Druid Threatre box office sales

Sell-out nights for Druid Theatre’s productions of John B Keane’s Sive and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot helped its box office income to climb by 38%, to €1.3m last year.

New accounts filed by the Galway-based Druid Performing Arts Company show its total revenues increased 21%, to almost €2.8m.

But the accounts show that Druid received over €1m in government grants, including €928,287 from the Arts Council.

Revenues were also boosted by €215,842 from corporate sponsors. It said audiences rose by almost a third, to 89,104, at 183 performances across 16 venues.

However, a sharp jump in costs, to almost €2.8m, due in part to staff numbers increasing to 97, contributed to the theatre’s surplus declining to only €13,971 for the year.

They also confirm the Druid board approved a contract extension for the theatre’s artistic director, Garry Hynes.

Ms Hynes, last year, said Druid was withdrawing a major international production from Galway 2020, due to the project’s “loss of time, significant budget cuts, and communication issues.”

The directors’ report also discloses that Druid paid €252,000 to acquire the 35-year lease on the restaurant Cactus Jack’s, at Druid Lane, in Galway.